1. Field of the Invention
This device and method relates to the field of hunting, and more specifically to the challenge hunters face in avoiding detection by game due to certain scents the hunter may unavoidably or unwittingly carry with them to the hunt. For thousands of years, the hunting of big game has commanded the utmost cleverness on the part of the hunter to avoid detection by highly developed senses of his or her prey.
Complementing their natural fitness, strength, swiftness and instincts, animals enjoy keenly developed senses among their primary protection devices. Besides their exceptional sight and hearing capacities, many say that an animal""s most powerfully protective ally lies in its remarkable olfactory sense. Long ago, hunters knew that simply striving to remain downwind of their prey would be insufficient to avoid detection.
This has brought about great numbers of techniques by hunters to remove or obfuscate the odors they bring to the forest. These include artificially developed, odor-hiding sprays applied repeatedly while on the hunt, washing the hunter""s garb in unscented detergent, wearing odorless clothing liners that prevent the emanation of scents, and even applying animal lure scents to attract the game to the hunter.
This problem of detection has become exacerbated in more recent times when unnatural chemicals, especially those with the very purpose of creating new odors, have become a large part of the typical hunter""s life. Deodorants, breath mints, special coffee blends, car interior scents, shaving lotions, perfumes, toothpaste, hair gels, alcohol, hand lotions, cold medications, fabric softeners, food odors, scented tissues, gasoline and oil tracesxe2x80x94the list is endless. Ever day, chemical industries develop still newer scents to add to the mix, and complicate the hunt.
For hundreds of years, hunters have awaited the development of a simple, inexpensive, and easy to use method and device for countering the scent-detection problem.
2. Description of the Related Art
Over the years, many attempts have been set forth to address the problem of human associated scent detection by wild game. Among those many who have recognized the problem is Maples, U.S. Pat. No. 5,024,008, with a rubber overshoe to insulate the odor-emitting boot from contacting the ground. Rubber, however, carries its own human-associated odor. Whitlock, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,202,324 brings an improved form of odorless footwear, but this does nothing to address the more overwhelming problem of general odors emanating from the hunter.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,722,277, Floyd notes the problems associated with the application of scented oils to the hunters"" clothing prior to a hunt, specifically pointing out that the added scent wears out or otherwise dissipates. Floyd addresses this issue through the introduction of scented fabric to be carried by the hunter. This material, while offering more lasting cover for the hunter, requires the hunter to carry more gear, and risks inappropriateness of a pre-selected scent. Besides, this covering-scent approach often leaves the clothes with an unpleasant odor at the conclusion of the hunt.
An invention to remove human associated scents from hunting clothing is set forth by Vickers in U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,107. This requires the acquisition of a sheet of material impregnated with activated carbon to be stored with the clothes overnight. Not all the scents can be removed in this manner, and the typical hunter does not have ready access to the materials needed for the process.
A similar approach, with similar shortcomings, is found in Fore""s U.S. Pat. No. 5,891,391, involving the use of a garment bag arrangement holding a granular material which can adsorb the human odor from the clothing. The bag may be tumbled in a clothes dryer, permitting the granular material to be ground into a powder that treats the fabric to take up the human odors. This approach, unfortunately suffers from added complication that the dryer treatment leaves yet another unnatural odor, even if it were to remove all human-emitted odors.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,899,790, Berg recognizes the need to place scent-source materials, including broken leaf substances that are naturally aromatic, in discrete containers located within a container where clothing to be conditioned is confined. While there are similarities to the approach taken in the subject invention to be disclosed herebelow, the Berg invention itself is wholly inapplicable to the problem at hand. In fact, Berg""s invention adds some of the very scents to be avoided in game hunting.
In a device for adding scents to hide human-associated odors, Knight presents an enclosed compartment in which a perforated shelf divides the compartment into upper and lower spaces. Clothing to be conditioned is placed in the upper space. A fan circulates air that picks up an odor from a strategically placed scent cartridge, moving the scented air through the shelf and in contact with the clothing. Supplied with battery power, the device can be used in the field.
The Knight device has definite drawbacks. While the apparatus will impregnate the hunter""s clothing with the cartridge-borne scent, it requires substantial mechanical and electrical apparatus to do so. Fan motors carry scents of their own, as do batteries and wiring. Additionally, scents from cartridges, at best, are not natural. They may be inappropriate to the environment of the intended hunt scene. Additionally, they may be emitted under the pressure of other odor-bearing gas. Besides, hunters will surely face discomfort and exposure while conditioning their clothing at the hunt scene.
A similar, though simpler device is shown in the 2001 Cabela""s Archery Catalogue. This disclosure, recently published as an advertisement, describes a locker for keeping hunting clothes scent free. Vented compartments of waxed corrugated construction avoid the intrusion of outside odors. A center storage holds leaf bags or scent bars; a waffled bottom elevates clothes to permit scent saturation. This disclosure includes nothing about any internal passages for facilitation of scent transfer. The construction is temporary and not durable, rendering it inadequate to the task at hand. Additionally, the wax substance, cardboard materials and glue carry tell-tail odors of their own, which odors will prove problematic in the field. Finally, with regard to the Cabela disclosure, the invention described more fully herebelow pre-dates this publication, rendering it inapplicable under the terms of Title 35, Section 102 of the United States Code.
Forbes, et al. address the problem of maintaining hunters"" clothing scent free during transportation. This invention is to avoid the addition of more scents from such temporary storage media as garbage bag and plastic garment bags. While, compared to the approach taken by the invention to be described below, Forbes"" invention involves adding still more gear to the typical hunt.
These are but a few of the thousands of xe2x80x9csolutionsxe2x80x9d to hunter scent detection problems appearing in the literature as prior art. However, none approaches the problem in the simple, elegant manner described below. And none is as inexpensive, easy to use, portable, and adaptable as the invention claimed herein.
A clothing conditioning apparatus and method employ a container means, referred to herein by the trademark HUNTER""S TRUNK(trademark) and designed as a box-like structure. An upper hinged lid, a bottom surface and four walls essentially define the container means, in its preferred embodiment. Within discrete chambers of the box-like structure, scent-source materials are confined so as to be adjacent to, but not touching, a hunter""s clothing articles and associated gear to be conditioned. In anticipation of a hunting event, the hunter""s clothing will be stored in the container means where they will be subjected to odor treatment or preconditioning by the natural scent-source material.
Within the bottom-most space of the container means, a panel means including a plurality of small airflow passages defines a first discrete chamber or compartment means for scent-source storage. At an upper level of the container, within said hinged lid, a second panel means is positioned to define a second discrete chamber or compartment means for natural scent-source material storage.
These panel means are structured so as to permit their repositioning to enable the user to charge or recharge the respective chambers or compartments with any of various natural scent-course materials indigenous to a prospective hunting environment. These materials are scent-sources from which appropriate, natural odors will be transferred to hunters"" clothing and gear.
For example, the chambers or compartments can be filled with pinecones that are often covered by potent odor-emitting pitch. Alternatively or concurrently the natural scent-source material may include hay or fruit parts that the intended quarry may sense as food. Or the material may be any of a variety of mixtures of these or other natural scent sources. Usually, however, the selected scent-source materials are environmentally hunt-specific, as determined by the skilled huntsman. That is, the materials will be selected as indigenous to the hunt region and consistent with scent expectations of the wild animal quarry.
The structure of the container means, while described as a simple box-like structure with a hinged lid, could in fact take any of a variety of forms or configurations. For example, the box-like structure need not be square or rectangular as might be expected, but could be round or otherwise curved in shape. The lid could be a mere fitted cap as opposed to a hinged arrangement, and need not be at the top of the container. Instead, a side-opening door might be provided for access to the container""s inner space.
The interior panel means configured to retain and position the scent source material could be of any suitable form and may be singular or multiple in number. They could be rectangular, hinged elements as illustrated herein, or may take alternate shapes and forms. The panel means and associated elements may be constructed from diverse parts or be unitary in design. They may be fashioned of wood framing, as suggested in the accompanying illustrations, or may be of other materials as appropriate and as well known by craftsmen or skilled artisans.
The panel means are described as including wire or wire-like mesh materials, but any one of an array of possible media could be used. For example, a simple wooden panel with multiple holes drilled or otherwise formed therein could be employed. Also, rather than wire or wire-like mesh, a different meshed or woven, or even non-woven, material could be deployed utilizing natural fibers or narrow wooden strips as in an open basket weave design. All these fabrication options are seen as well within the purview and choice of the skilled artisan.
Plastic, if totally odor-free, may be substituted for any or every part of the panels, and textile fabric bags can be used as well, either with or without a mesh arrangement, but permitting scent-laden air to circulate from the scent-source material to the articles of clothing. It is important that any material used not be of a type that would impart or convey unnatural or human-associated odors to the clothing being conditioned. Again, these are matters of choice left to those skilled in the art.
When planning a hunt, the hunter""s clothing is prepared as by washing, preferably in a scent-free detergent or soap, and placed in the container means for conditioning. Depending upon where the hunt will take place, natural material collected from the hunt site (or a site that would be presumed to be similar to the hunt site) will have been gathered and placed in the chamber or compartment means as natural scent-source materials.
The container means is then closed and the natural transfer of scent is permitted to occur over a period of time. Longer exposure to the scent will, to a certain extent, ensure more conditioning of the hunter""s clothing and associated gear by the selected scent-source.
When readying for the hunt, the clothing may be removed from the container means and immediately worn by the hunter. Alternatively, and in some cases preferably, the entire container means can be carried as luggage to the general location of the hunt site. The latter method will avoid additional scents picked up by the clothing and gear during transport, such as fast-food grease, coffee odors, auto interior odors, exhaust emission fumes, oil or gasoline traces, cigarette, cigar or pipe smoke.
When utilized properly, this invention will greatly enhance the hunter""s probability of a successful hunt, since the possibility of human associated scent detection by the quarry will be minimized.